Eyes on Texas Birds 2017: Sunday, April 23, 2017--Predicted Fallout Day S. Padre Island, TX

Early yesterday evening the wind began to shift from the south at 20-30 mph to the north, at 20-30 mph. Dawn arrived with black overcast skies and the temperature cooler by more than 10 degrees.

We ventured out at 8:30 am to Sheepshead Road along with about 30 cars. I would estimate 60 birders with a hungry look in their eyes.

There were birds, and more birds. First we noticed the showy male Baltimore Orioles at all the oranges in the trees, more than a dozen at a time.

Some nice volunteers/bird lovers had gone around to give the migrating birds some refreshing sustenance. They regularly do it every few days, but were careful to have it ready for the tired migrating birds.

Next were a bunch of paler yellowish birds, the female Baltimore Orioles.

Then a male Orchard Oriole joined, followed by his female

We picked out Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, another showy bigger bird and gradually found the matching females

Indigo Buntings joined the Rose-breasted Grosbeaks--all males

Then, whappo! Painted Buntings

Swainson’s Thrushes gradually came into focus

A Gray Catbird. If it seems a bit fuzzy, that is how things appear to us today, seeing so many at once and trying to photograph everything we see.

Whizz over our heads—a Blue-headed Vireo! We snapped photos frantically!

At about 10 we decided to go visit the Convention Center. On the way a flock of Laughing Gulls and another of Black Skimmers (photo above) flew over. We walked past a flock of about 30 Cattle Egrets on the ground by the parking lot.

Many birders had arrived before us. They had brought out the big lens cameras! A Common Yellowthroat greeted us. A Northern Parula flew by.

More flashes of blue—Indigo Bunting. Note: Female Indigo Bunting are brown with fine streaks on chest, blue tinge on tail. Female Lazuli are brown and usually show cinnamon wash on unstreaked chest, with more obvious wing-bars than female Indigo.

In reality they are practically indistinguishable. We assumed the males and females hanging together were the same species!

Male Painted Buntings

Female Painted Buntings

Lazuli Buntings, male and female

Worm-eating Warbler

Yellow-breasted Chat and Bronzed Cowbird pair

Warbling Vireo

Wood Thrush and Lincoln Sparrow

Ruby-throated Hummingbird and Tennessee Warbler

The skulking Ovenbird

Blue-winged Warbler and a little bird crawling up and down and around the trunk of the tree. My first impression was a brown creeper, but no—it was black and white striped—a Black and White Warbler

Yellow-billed Cuckoo. It was very cold (69 degrees) and windy. Birders had jackets on. The cuckoo did not like the wind. He would stay in the tall grass and then pop up once in a while to see what was going on—then down again Impossible to get a good photo, but enough for id. Later I got a better photo.

Acadian Flycatcher and Great-crested Flycatcher

Brown-crested Flycatcher

Stunning male Scarlet Tanager

Scarlet Tanager's lady love. She seemed tired and he was very solicitous of her.

Lots of birders including me with my little camera

Lots of birders' cars and BIG cameras

Chuck-will’s-widow (nightjar). This bird shifted position slightly throughout the day but otherwise ignored the crowds of people and big cameras around him. Also, a Veery.

Both Louisiana and Northern Waterthrushes

Other birders were very helpful and kind, especially our neighbor in the RV park across the road, Bruce. He gave us lots of tips that led to life birds!

I never could figure which is more show-stopping, the Baltimore Oriole or the spectacular red "bottle-brush" flower. Together they were unbeatable!

Then the Tennessee Warbler got into the act

A Nashville Warbler and a Least Flycatcher

Blackburnian Warbler and Mural on Convention Center

Bird list for Convention Center.

No one wanted to leave for lunch until after 1 pm. We had been birding straight for nearly 5 hours.

Then we went back to Sheepshead Road to see what was going on.

Bird list for Sheepshead.

We birded for almost 10 hours today. I took over 850 photos and Paul took about 530 and we are still deleting the bad ones. We haven’t yet counted how many species we saw, how many life birds or what they all were.

Our heads are spinning as we try to take in all we have experienced on this very big day of birding!

Today I tried to capture the experience of a fallout with all the excitement, trying to see and capture photos of everything, missing lots of shots due to hurry and shadows, and trying to identify so many birds we have never seen before.